Kamasi Washington Kamasi Washington

Close
Close View Full Product

Item added to your cart.

Checkout
Previous
Next
Close
Fearless Movement
ReleaseProduct
Fearless Movement
Artist
Display Artist
Kamasi Washington
Label
Young
Catalogue Number
YO350
Release Date
May 3, 2024

Bundles

Select bundle

  • Exclusive Black T-Shirt + Vinyl 2LP Bundle:

    $69.99

    • Fearless Movement Vinyl, 2×LP, Limited Edition Red + Blue Vinyl

    • Black Movement T-Shirt T-shirt, M

      Select size

    • Fearless Movement WAV / FLAC

    Available: May 3, 2024

    Add to Cart

Available on Limited Edition Red + Blue Vinyl 2LP while stocks last.

There is a tender proposition behind composer, bandleader, and saxophonist Kamasi Washington’s fifth studio album, Fearless Movement: we’re all born elastic, and if you don’t use it you lose it. Dance was on Washington’s mind while making this record, and it serves as a metaphor for this practice of flexibility. “When people hear that I'm making a dance album, it’s not literal,” Washington says. “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music — expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing.”

Turning his attention to dance, and bringing the audience with him, is a natural progression of Washington’s ongoing study of music as a means of connection. His 2015 album The Epic, as well as 2018’s Heaven and Earth were received by critics and audiences as a kind of intervention, across generations and genres. Both of those records were big offerings, heavy on choir and strings, but Fearless Movement offers something different: it’s still immense, but more rhythmic — and this time he’s brought the rappers into his world.

Collaboration, and a multi-disciplinary perspective, is key to Washington’s process. It’s what keeps him creative. The release of Heaven and Earth was accompanied by a short film, “AS TOLD TO G/D THYSELF,” that was made with the filmmakers Bradford Young, Terence Nance, and Jenn Nkiru, and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In the years since, he’s been playing in the musical ‘supergroup’ DINNER PARTY with friends Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, and 9th Wonder. And the original score he wrote for the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming was nominated for Grammy and Primetime Emmy Awards in 2020.

Washington isn’t the only one breaking with convention on Fearless Movement. Andre 3000, perhaps rap’s finest stylist, whose guest verses are coveted by all, offers up his very first flute feature on “Dream State.” A song about moving on from struggle is an apt contribution from an artist searching for freedom. “Andre is connected to music in a way that’s inexplicable, and he still has that same magic on the flutes,” says Washington.“That honesty, and that trueness to his spirit is there.” When he showed up to the studio with a bag of flutes, Washington and his bandmate and fellow Fearless Movement composer Brandon Coleman invited him to jam. Together, they found the song on the first pass. “We’re not easy musicians to swim around with. We moved kind of fast and free, and he was just with us,” says Washington.

There’s a tight-knit feeling to Fearless Movement, which continues to connect Washington’s work to Black music in L.A. across time — from past to present to future. On the laid back and funky “Get Lit,” which is about using the light within each of us to build up our communities, Washington brings together the legendary bandleader George Clinton and rapper D Smoke for “one of the coolest tracks on the album.”

This ethos of elasticity and possibility extended to members of Washington’s band, some of whom have writing credits on the album. It also features regular collaborators like vocalist Patrice Quinn, fellow saxophonist Terrace Martin, bass player Thundercat, and drummer Ronald Bruner Jr. DJ Battlecat and BJ The Chicago Kid.

Being orbited by so much change lends a suppleness to these new songs, thematically and musically. “I know people are kind of used to me doing the big orchestras, but that just wasn’t what this music was calling for,” says Washington. “There’s a degree of insecurity that you feel, but I always have to ask myself, ‘Is this what you’re hearing?’ If you try to do something that isn't what you're hearing or feeling, will you be happy?”

Digital Tracklist

  1. 1 Lesanu 9:22 Buy

    Lesanu

  2. 2 Asha The First 7:46 Buy

    Asha The First

  3. 3 Computer Love 9:26 Buy

    Computer Love

  4. 4 The Visionary 1:10 Buy

    The Visionary

  5. 5 Get Lit 3:26 Buy

    Get Lit

  6. 6 Dream State 8:39 Buy

    Dream State

  7. 7 Together 5:34 Buy

    Together

  8. 8 The Garden Path 6:40 Buy

    The Garden Path

  9. 9 Road to Self (KO) 13:25 Buy

    Road to Self (KO)

  10. 10 Interstellar Peace (The Last Stance) 5:04 Buy

    Interstellar Peace (The Last Stance)

  11. 11 Lines in the Sand 7:25 Buy

    Lines in the Sand

  12. 12 Prologue 8:19 Buy

    Prologue

Kamasi Washington

Kamasi Washington

Close
Previous Play Pause Next
features.playlist.label Close
Loading:
--:-- --:--

Privacy Settings

This site uses cookies. For information, please read our cookies policy. Cookies Policy

Allow All
Manage Consent Preferences